PABLLO VITAR, GLORIA GROOVE and THEIR PERFORMANCES: Audio-Visual Flows and Temporali Es in Pop Culture
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PABLLO VITAR, GLORIA GROOVE AND THEIR PERFORMANCES: Audio-visual fl ows and temporali� es in pop culture1 JORGE CARDOSO FILHO Lecturer at the Graduate Program in Contemporary Communication and Culture at UFBA and at the UFRB Communication Masters, Cruz das Almas, Bahia, Brazil. PhD in Communication from UFMG. Volume 37 E-mail:cardosofi [email protected] issue 3 / 2018 ORCID: 0000-0002-4276-934X. RAFAEL JOSÉ AZEVEDO Contracampo e-ISSN 2238-2577 PhD student at the Graduate Program in Communication of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Niterói (RJ), 37 (3) Email:[email protected] dec/2018-mar/2019 ORCID: 0000-0002-5125-5957. THIAGO EMANOEL FERREIRA DOS SANTOS Contracampo – Brazilian Journal PhD student at the Graduate Program in Communication from the Federal of Communication is a quarterly University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] publication of the Graduate EDINALDO ARAUJO MOTA JUNIOR Programme in Communication PhD student at the Graduate Program in Communication from the Federal Studies (PPGCOM) at Fluminense University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Federal University (UFF). It aims E-mail: [email protected] ORCID: 0000-0002-4022-6106. to contribute to critical refl ection within the fi eld of Media Studies, 1 A preliminary version of this text was presented in the VI Communication Proccess Historicity, in being a space for dissemination of the Federal University of Bahia, at the city of Cachoeira in the state of Bahia, in September 2017. The current confi guration of this article is unprecedented. research and scientifi c thought. TO REFERENCE THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING CITATION: Cardoso Filho, J.; Azevedo, R. J.; Santos, T. E. F.; Mota Junior, E. A.. Pabllo Vitar, Gloria Groove And Their Per- formances: Audio-visual fl ows and temporalities in pop culture. Contracampo, 37(3). Submitted on: 03/29/2018 / Accepted on: 11/04/2018 DOI – http://dx.doi.org/10.22409/contracampo.v37i3.19455 Abstract This article proposes an analysis that understands the relationship between audio- visual and cultural fl ows as vectors that operate the political, aesthetic and social confi gurations of the experience, as from the drag performances of Pabllo Vittar and Gloria Groove. The YouTube platform is taken as a dispositive that, by positioning the bodies of the artists, opens up possibilities of subjectivation processes that cross the identities of gender, media genres and the very temporality of experience. From the videoclips, we articulate the notions of performance and dispositive to search crossings of gender identities, media genres and audiovisual and space-time streams in dispute. About the songs music, we follow the relationship between consumption and production that projects itself into a queer segmentation, but at the same time transcends its limits. Keywords Audio-visual Flows; Temporalities; Performance; Pabllo Vittar; Gloria Groove. 2 Temporal dynamics in a present in extension Current digital repositories hold a signifi cant amount of the world's cultural produc� on, especially in socie� es which take scrip� ng as a fundamental ac� vity. Whether they are centenarian or are very recent, these expressions become objects of binary codifi ca� on available on servers for people with variable interests: dance, wri� ng, architecture, music, fi lm, photography, etc. Such great availability promotes interes� ng rearrangements in the cultural, aesthe� c and poli� cal fi elds, making experiences more fl uid regardless of the moment in � me each of these expressions emerge. In the specifi c case we are interested in, gender performances expressed in contemporary pop songs indicate important complexi� es that need further analysis. Because in a context where the discussions about misogyny, feminism, LGBTfobia1, racism and so many other forms of discriminatory ac� ons are coming to surface, it is a common feeling that there has never been so many condi� ons of emancipa� on and empowerment. However, cultural expressions emerging in this confi gura� on need to ensure some level of repe� � on of the established experience in order to gain an emergency condi� on. These are the internal confl icts that interest us. In an interview granted to Rolling Stone Brazil in January 2018, Pabllo Vi� ar, a drag queen singer from the Brazilian state of Maranhão, drawn a� en� on to the fact that she is "a drag queen on the spotlight in a country that has the world's highest rate of murder of LGBT people" (Brêda, 2018, p.42). When asked about the lack of poli� cal content in her lyrics, she con� nues: "I think it's great when people create lyrics that bring up issues and controversies. But me, as an ar� st, I want to talk about ordinary stuff , of my daily life, about an argument I had with a friend, you know" (Brêda, 2018, p.42). Gloria Groove, a famous Brazilian drag queen who is also a rapper, in an interview to Veja magazine, comments about her iden� fi ca� on with "rap music and hip hop, music genres always associated with men" and how she decided to invest in high-quality music videos aiming to reach the public beyond the LGBT universe (Ba� sta Jr, 2018). Such characteriza� ons are indica� ve of the powers and the limits inherent to the ways in which these cultural expressions are manifested in Brazilian society. We agree with Raymond Williams (1979) about his indica� on that cultural analyses need to comprehend not only a period of � me, but also the "internal dynamic rela� ons of any actual process” (Williams, 1979, p.125). Thus, the author introduces a fundamental issue for Communica� on and Cultural Studies: the mul� plicity and simultaneity of experience regimes in the everyday life. The observa� on of the coexistence of diff erent temporali� es at the same historical � me, marked by archaic (past/past), residual (past/present), dominant (present/present) and emergent (present/future)2 elements interests us in par� cular for the observa� on of phenomena in which sensi� ve experiences point to a dispute about body construc� ons and hegemonic dominant gender iden� � es. The performances3 we observed especially in the work of these two drag queen ar� sts are 1 "LGBTFobia" is the term that designates embarrassment, discrimination or any type of violence suff ered by the population whose gender identities and sexualities are considered dissidents. LGBTQ is the acronym adopted by international human rights defense bodies such as the UN and the Amnesty International. The acronym represents the following gender identities and sexualities: lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexu- als, transgender and queer. The term also refers to the performativities not framed by cisgender logic, that is, the identity of a cisgender subject is respected and legitimated by society and the government since birth, while trans subjects have distinct identities from heterosexual cisgender normativity naturalized by society standards. 2 We use the approaches of diff erent temporalities, proposed by Raymond Williams, by Itania Gomes (2011) followed by the Cultural Studies and Transformation in Communication Research Center (TRACC). 3 Paul Zumthor (2000) approaches performance to a strength-form that holds the status of a rule and develops four aspects of it: the performance implies the recognition of certain characteristic features, it draws attention to itself while projecting the audience to another context, promotes non-redundat repeti- tions and modifi es knowledge as it marks the communication. 3 organized according to pop culture4 audiovisual standards, and they address everyday events, such as love, celebra� ons, seduc� on, inebria� on and so many others. They also present bodies — many of them considered abject5, others within the hegemonic pa� ern — that, while performing, can dialogue with already consolidated, but segmented, tradi� ons; break hegemonic expecta� ons and point out elements not yet available in the cultural context; and even reproduce hegemonic parameters, intending or not to ensure their inser� on into contemporary pop culture. Hence, they allow an analysis of how these audiovisual and cultural fl ows are capable of confi guring aesthe� c, poli� cal and cultural prac� ces. Such se� ngs do not follow a linear approach and o� en require/impose an anachronic reading6 perspec� ve before their expressions. The surprise of seeing singer from Pernambuco state Johnny Hooker performing in a sequence of the movie Ta� oo (2013), by director Hilton Lacerda, can be explained by the expecta� on (dominant in Brazilian patriarchal culture) that this kind of manhood does not fi t according to stablished standards. However, it is possible to ques� on whether this pa� ern fi ts the discussions promoted by social movements concerned with the strong binary demarca� ons of gender performances (male/female), mainly from a poli� cal LGBTQ minori� es perspec� ve. Even if it is not refl ected or addressed directly in their lyrics, the performances of the drag queen singers Pabllo Vi� ar and Gloria Groove can demonstrate resistance processes, in some extent, if we take into considera� on misogynis� c and patriarchal elements that characterize the poli� cal, cultural and aesthe� c hegemonic prac� ces in Brazil. By making their drag queen iden� � es visible, Vi� ar and Groove enter the dispute of meanings around feminini� es and masculini� es, challenging subjec� va� on devices as regards sexual conducts understood as the only ones possible in society. These disputes are even more evident in conducts such as the ac� on of crackers who crashed Pabllo Vi� ar's YouTube channel on August 28th 2017, dele� ng the most viewed music video, “K.O.”, and pos� ng in its place messages suppor� ng the presiden� al candidate Jair Bolsonaro, known for his homophobic and misogynis� c statements, and against the extension of minority rights, such as the racial and or social quotas in public universi� es.